The man convicted and sentenced to death for carrying out the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings is fighting to prevent federal prosecutors from seizing funds he saved in his prison cafeteria account.
Lawyers for death row inmate Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 30, have filed an appeal to prevent Boston federal authorities from collecting more than $4,200 from Tsarnaev’s bank account, the Boston Herald reported. “We are not hoarding funds or spending profligately.”
Prosecutors say Tsarnaev received about $26,000 in donations from a variety of sources, including strangers, his sister and his lawyer, the paper said.
Tsarnaev’s attorney, David Patton, also said in a filing that his client received $1,400 in coronavirus relief payments several years ago and that “Tsarnaev took unsolicited deposits from people he had never met. “We continue to receive it,” but the client acknowledged that he does not have access to his personal information. Those funds.
Federal officials in Massachusetts have been working for more than two years to force Tsarnaev to turn over coronavirus relief payments and other funds in inmate trust accounts that pay more than $101 million to victims. Ta.
After a 2015 trial, Tsarnaev was ordered to pay more than $101 million in criminal restitution and an additional $3,000 in fees. His attorney said his client has paid $2,600 so far.
Tsarnaev was convicted of 30 charges related to the bombing at the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon.
The explosion killed three people and injured more than 260. Seventeen of the injured victims lost at least one limb.
Tsarnaev and his brother then led police on a multi-day manhunt during which Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier was shot and killed.
Mr. Tsarnaev’s younger brother, Mr. Tamerlan, also died.
Tsarnaev is being held at ADMAX Florence in Colorado, known as the “Alcatraz of the Rockies,” and his lawyers are seeking to have his death sentence overturned.
Former prison warden Bob Hood told the Herald that the taxpayer bill for Tsarnaev’s incarceration is already well over $1 million.
Hood criticized Tsarnaev’s access to thousands of people in prison accounts as “aggressive.”
“He came from a poor family and should remain poor,” Hood told the Herald. “It’s disgusting that he has any kind of following.”
